Matt Smith to have a busy weekend at Indianapolis

Matt Smith Racing press release

Matt Smith Doing Double Duty, Tuning Three Bikes at Indy

Matt Smith

Photo by: Michael C. Johnson

CLERMONT, Ind. – Matt Smith is going to have a big Big Go.

The 2007 NHRA Full Throttle Series Pro Stock Motorcycle champion is riding and tuning his own Buell, tuning the bike of his wife, Angie, and tuning a third Matt Smith Racing bike for Michael Ray, who is coming aboard for this weekend’s Mac Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway. In addition, he is driving the IDG Camaro Pro Mod in the NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Series this weekend as a teammate to his father, “Tricky” Rickie Smith, who was recently cleared to race nearly one month earlier than expected.

Phew.

Matt knows what it takes to win rounds at Indy. Between 2005-2007, the King, N.C.-native when to the final round every year, bringing home the Wally in 2006 when he beat Angelle Sampey. He also knows what this race means on a drag racer’s resume.

“It’s the biggest race of the year,” Smith said, taking a break from working on the two Pro Mods he and his father will race this weekend. “If you can’t win a championship, Indy’s the next biggest thing you want to do. Sometimes, people will give up a championship for Indy I’ve heard. The championship is always best to have, but man, when you can win the U.S. Nationals…”

Fortunately, it’s not a decision Smith will have to make, as he has both the race win and the season title. But when it comes to the U.S. Nationals, once is never enough. Despite a .002 second red light at Brainerd in the most recent race on the schedule, Smith’s Buell was strong and he plans on displaying that strength this weekend.

“I think we’ll be pretty good,” he said. “We got our program back on track at Brainerd and tested some stuff. We showed in the first round of eliminations that we had the third-quickest bike, .006 behind the No. 1 guy. I think we’ll be good. With Angie running good and with Michael Ray coming onboard, we should have plenty of data to try to help us.”